New yardage markers at Morro Bay for your golfing pleasure

A little over a year ago one of our Morro Bay Golf Club members asked if he we could put yardage markers on the irrigation heads to speed up play.  We discussed the idea and the Golf Club agreed to help.  First the started by using their GPS units and range finders to determine the yardages for heads from the greens to about 250 yards away (because any further than that and you are just dreaming...seriously hit the ball already).



Scribing temporary yardages

Our club members spent many afternoons following their regular play days to measure and collect the yardage data for the irrigation heads throughout the course.  This data was compiled for each hole and a list of yardage markers was created.  483 in all!  Well that only included the heads in or very near the fairways.  It was determined that if you could not hit it straight you were on your own and exact yardage was not likely to make a significance to your game.  This is a joke...we just had to draw the line somewhere.  I am the guy that rarely gets to use these yardages because I am either in the rough or the adjoining fairway.

With the data compiled, we sought out a company in our County to produce the yardage plaques and we found a suitable product that after materials and installation cost just over $1.  That's a considerable savings compared with the typical irrigation head yardage markers that cost between $3 and $15 (that is not a typo!).  Our total cost was under $600 to mark the entire course.


Yardage data collection

It was time to install the heads and we took the golf club up on their offer to help.  The club members have been quite generous by helping with projects over the past couple of years and we really appreciate their assistance.  We expected between 10-15 people to help out and we were happily surprised to find that nearly 40 people were interested to help.  The free appetizers and refreshments that we provided may have helped a bit, but really I think the group just wanted to do something for the good of the course and club.  So we broke into 11 groups of 4 and set out to trim and clean around the heads, drill, glue, and screw on the yardage markers.



The finished product

Fun was had by all and the entire project took just over three hours to complete.  The results have been favorable with only a few complaints about the yardages not being totally accurate, but how many of our clubs are accurate within 3-5 yards either.  All in all this was a great day for our golf course and our golf club by combining our efforts we were able to improve the golfing experience at Morro Bay Golf Course and enjoy the fantastic weather and cameraderie!